Tag Archives: Morton S Gray

WHOSE HOUSE? JANE CABLE TALKS TO AUTHORS MORTON S GRAY AND CAROL THOMAS

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It seems a year of lockdowns and an inability to travel has caused authors to look closer to home for inspiration. This summer is seeing a surge in books with large or stately homes as their setting and family secrets at their centre.

For Morton S Gray and Carol Thomas, both published by the award winning romance publisher Choc Lit, their similarities in setting choice only came to light when their covers were revealed. The friends, who message each other almost every day, were unaware of the coincidence but saw the funny side. With Morton writing romantic suspense and Carol writing romantic comedy they are confident their stories are very different, but I was intrigued to find out more.

Summarise your story in a single sentence

 M: Summer at Lucerne Lodge is a contemporary novel set in my fictional seaside town of Borteen about family secrets and their consequences for main characters Tanner Bryant and Rosie Phillips.

C: A Summer of Second Chances is a romantic comedy telling the story of Ava Flynn who runs a charity shop and receives a donation that unlocks secrets and passions relating to her past.

Tell us more about those stately looking homes on your covers

 M: Lucerne Lodge is an almost stately home, near my fictional seaside town of Borteen. It has a wrought-iron gate, gardens and a lake. At the start of the book there is a huge marquee on the lawn to house a charity auction.

C: Dapplebury House is a stately home that has been in the Bramlington family for generations, but with changes afoot in the village, the future of the house and its estate are in jeopardy.

The house in my book was inspired by visits to Petworth House and Uppark. I was lucky enough to visit Uppark with my dad, just before the first lockdown, we wandered through the wonderful house and gardens soaking up the atmosphere.

What inspired your story?

 M: I love writing about mysteries. I don’t plan my books, so I am telling myself the story as I write. At the beginning of Summer at Lucerne Lodge hero Tanner has found a private investigator’s file on his father’s desk about Rosie Phillips and wants to know why his father is so interested in her.

C: I volunteer in a charity shop and received a donation of a photo album. As I was checking the quality of it for resale I spotted a single photograph that had been left inside. My mind began to weave plots and possibilities from that.

Who is your favourite character and why?

M: Rosie is my favourite, because she goes through so much emotion in the course of the book. However, I liked one of my secondary characters so much – Buzz, a mystic man who runs a crystal shop in Borteen, that I’ve almost finished a novel about his story too!

C: I always love my K-9 characters but also fall a little for my hero because I think its important to feel the attraction my heroine has for him, so I’ll go with my lead, Henry Bramlington, who has to face up to his past and all that he has been running away from in order to forge the future he wants.

How can we find out more about you and your books?

M: My website is at www.mortonsgray.com, where you will also find a link to my weekly blog.

C: I love readers getting in touch and enjoy getting followers involved with my research. My contact and social media information can all be found on my website. http://www.carol-thomas.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Writing Process – Morton S. Gray

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I am a published writer living in Worcestershire, UK with my husband, two sons and tiny white dog, Lily. I wrote my first novel when I was fourteen. It was a swashbuckling seafaring adventure, complete with galleons, cannons and a dashing hero. The story was heavily influenced by the Errol Flynn films I used to watch with my grandmother on Sunday afternoons. I got swallowed up after that by the education and work system and didn’t write much more than reports and meeting agendas for many years.

Starting to write more seriously when I was taking a break from work due to ill health, I took lots of writing courses and began to shortlist in writing competitions. Then in 2016, I got my publishing break, I won Choc Lit Publishing’s Search for a Star competition!

I have had three books published by Choc Lit so far – The Girl on the Beach, The Truth Lies Buried and Christmas at Borteen Bay, these are all romances with a mystery to solve and set in my fictional seaside town of Borteen. I am promoting the three Borteen Bay series while I finish my next books.

I write almost everywhere I go the old-fashioned way with notebook and pen – cafés, appointments, waiting for trains. I have piles of notebooks filled with stories. I generally prefer to write away from home, as I get too distracted by things that need doing in the house and, of course, by the dog. At least writing longhand in this way, the first time I put the words onto my computer it acts like a first edit of the manuscript.

My genre is romantic suspense, but I usually get so carried away with the mystery part of the book that I have to catch up with the romance when I’m editing. I don’t plan, I just write, that way the novel writing process is enjoyable for me as I don’t know what is coming next. My novels appear to naturally evolve. I read a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (the same person who wrote Eat, Pray, Love) and in it she talks about ideas and stories floating in the ether waiting to download to a receptive person and this is truly how it feels when I’m working.

I love writing, but with a teenager doing exams, a dependent mother, a husband who works abroad and a demanding dog, I often struggle to find time to myself (hence the haunting of coffee shops!). Nothing can compare to the feeling I get when the words are flowing and I get very twitchy if I haven’t had space to write.

For aspiring writers I think the most important thing is to write a story that sings to you, because that will allow you to write a story that sings to your readers too.

 

Biography for Morton S. Gray

Morton lives with her husband, two sons and Lily, the tiny white dog, in Worcestershire, U.K. She has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember, penning her first attempt at a novel aged fourteen. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Society of Authors.

Her debut novel The Girl on the Beach was published after she won the Choc Lit Publishing Search for a Star competition. This story follows a woman with a troubled past as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her son’s new headteacher, Harry Dixon. The book is available as a paperback and e-book.

Morton’s second book for Choc Lit The Truth Lies Buried is another romantic suspense novel, The book tells the story of Jenny Simpson and Carver Rodgers as they uncover secrets from their past. This book is available as an e-book, paperback and audiobook.

Christmas at Borteen Bay is Morton’s first Christmas novella. It is set in her fictional seaside town of Borteen and follows the story of Pippa Freeman, who runs the Rose Court Guesthouse with her mother, and local policeman Ethan Gibson, as they unravel a family secret as Christmas approaches.

You can catch up with Morton on her website www.mortonsgray.com, on

Twitter – @MortonSGray, her Facebook page – Morton S. Gray Author – https://www.facebook.com/mortonsgray/ and 

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/morton_s_gray/

Purchasing links for The Girl on the Beach at http://www.choc-lit.com/dd-product/the-girl-on-the-beach/

Purchasing links for The Truth Lies Buried at http://www.choc-lit.com/dd-product/the-truth-lies-buried/

Purchasing links for Christmas in Borteen Bay at https://www.choc-lit.com/dd-product/christmas-at-borteen-bay/

The Business of Books: Jane Cable Gets Distracted But Finds She is Not Alone

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Jane Cable gets distracted but finds she is not alone

It’s a small miracle you are reading this article at all, to be honest – and great credit to writer friends who have rallied around to provide me with some content. The thing is, last week I moved house. Long distance and for the first time in over twenty years. Not only did time become an issue, but the mental effort turned my brain into a huge mass of Cornish clotted cream.

I am not the only author suffering from a life event at the moment. Frost’s own Margaret Graham has been in the wars but in typical fashion is seeing the positive: “Falling into a wall recently and breaking my shoulder not only put one hand out of use but a whole brain, it seems to me. I feel that actually giving it a rest is probably not a bad thing. You will find that creativity is better for a bit of a holiday.”

Writer of historical fiction, Rosemary Noble, is also good at seeing the upside of potentially distracting events. “Sometimes you can avoid the stress by burying yourself in writing. I’m thinking of trying to sell my mother’s flat to pay for her care home. The only way I got through that 12 months was writing,” she told me.

There are some everyday distractions which make the list too. Day jobs (most writers have them), family commitments, lack of sleep, paying the bills – even social media – all sap creative energy. Sometimes the good things do as well. Ghost writer and freelance wordsmith Sue Kelso Ryan cited her dog as the biggest culprit – and it was a great excuse to use her lovely picture as well.

Which just goes to show that good things interrupt our writing too. “Having twins,” says media medic and women’s fiction author Carol Cooper. “That knocked writing on the head for a few months. And illness/surgery. You resent having to rest or slow down because it stops you writing.” Although she did manage to create a top-selling practical parenting guide about her experiences once she was able to find the time.

Crises involving other family members which hit without warning seem to have the biggest effect, as fantasy & romance writer and brand strategist Amy Tipper-Hale has just found out: “My boyfriend breaking his leg in Milan after being run over by a motorcyclist, and me having to fly over to be with him so he wasn’t entirely stranded…I thought I’d have plenty of time to write, but it ended up being stressful and exhausting – my mind all over the place, and not a single word written…except this.” Luckily the patient is now at home – and hopefully Amy will get back to writing again soon too.

As for me, now I have unpacked my desk and settled it into its new location, I need to have a plan. I’ve been sitting on the edit notes for my current manuscript for a month or so and my brain is just starting to tick over them. And one thing this house move is meant to achieve is more time to write. Fingers crossed I can make it happen.

As well as those mentioned above, my thanks also go to Barbara Copperthwaite, Victoria Cornwall, Morton S Gray, Wersha Bharadwa, Carol Thomas and Clare Ruel for their contributions.